The Ohio State University

Knowlton School of Architecture

Landscape Architecture Section

LARCH 597:

Stewardship Issues in Environmental Management

Course Syllabus

Spring Quarter, 2006

Professor John Simpson

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND COURSE GOALS

LARCH 597 is a 5-credit undergraduate lecture course satisfying the university General Education Curriculum (GEC) requirements for a Capstone Course. The course is open to all OSU students with senior standing. It meets daily from 8:30-9:18 A.M. in #175 Knowlton.

LARCH 597 explores stewardship issues associated with land and environmental management in the U.S. In so doing, it considers the broad cultural, ecological, economic, ethical, and political implications of alternate stewardship values, particularly in light of their historical development. The course is not an environmental history course or a course specifically about environmental ethics or philosophy. Rather, it focuses on practical issues in the real world. The course sensitizes the student to the range of implications associated with decisions that govern the way our environmental resources are utilized in various forms of landscape development and challenges each individual to confront and consider his/her personal stewardship values.

The general goals of LARCH 597 are:

1) to enable the student to understand and critically evaluate contemporary environmental management issues in light of the broad economic, ecological, political, socio-cultural and ethical values that shape them;

2) to develop the student's awareness of and appreciation for the range of stewardship values used by different socio-cultural groups in selecting courses of action in response to these issues;

3) to foster the development of the student's personal stewardship values regarding environmental and social issues of critical concern;

4) to foster the student's ability to articulate his/her values in a coherent and informed manner both orally and in writing;

5) to encourage the student to participate actively in the public debate and democratic process regarding these critical issues; and,

6) to suggest appropriate, tangible ways the student throughout his/her life, as an individual or a member of a group, can respond meaningfully to these issues.

LARCH 597 meets daily for lecture and discussion. Class is designed to stimulate active student participation and discussion via a series of role-playing exercises that simulate contemporary stewardship issues. These exercises, and the issues they explore, form the heart of the course and reflect its pedagogical philosophy: the formation of personal stewardship values is best facilitated through the close examination and active debate of alternate values. Consequently, regular attendance is critical. The class greatly benefits from the broad range of its students' backgrounds and academic majors; however, due to this diversity, student familiarity with the general course content varies. Yet each student is responsible for all course content.

EVALUATION METHODS AND COURSE POLICIES

Course grades will be based on: a reading response; the completion of class exercises; and on regular attendance and active participation, including the presentation of a current environmental stewardship issue, which can be tied to one of your constituent letter topics. The reading response is a three-page, single-spaced, typed paper submitted in response to a book of your choice from list # 2 (see reading list below) or an approved alternative. The paper documents your understanding of the material, provides an application of the book’s principle ideas, and expresses your interpretation of and reaction to them. Other graded components will have a separate problem statement handed out when the assignment is made. Any evidence of academic misconduct throughout the course will initiate standard university procedures as specified in the Code of Student Conduct.

Each graded component is worth a designated number of points as indicated below. At the conclusion of the course, the total number of points each student has received will be calculated along with an arithmetic class average. Grade ranges then will be established in accordance with Faculty Rule 3335-7-21 that sets university standards for marks; a description of the rule also can be found in the University Bulletin. No extra credit points are available in this class.

Submission deadlines and treatment of late work are always an issue in this class due to the range of academic backgrounds represented in the class and the variance in how these matters are handled throughout the university. Therefore the class follows the most fair and most practical way of handling them: all assignments are due at the designated time. No late work will be accepted without valid, extenuating circumstances—circumstances that were unforeseen and uncontrollable. While a personal injury or illness is acceptable, the circumstance must be documented by a note from a physician. "I had to work," "I just didn't get it done," "I forgot," "I overslept," or "I was in Florida on a job interview" are not acceptable circumstances.

Dates Course Component Points

all quarter Participation & Attendance (includes Issue Presentation) 300

3/31 - 5/12 Constituent Letters 200 4/10 - 4/26 Landfill-NIMBY Exercise 50 5/1 - 5/10 Fishing Exercise 50 5/15 - 5/30 Our National Parks Exercise 200

5/18 Reading Response 200

Total Available Points 1000

A make up exam or a make up exercise will be given only under the following conditions. First, the regularly scheduled exam or exercise was missed due to extraordinary circumstances unforeseen and unavoidable by the student, such as serious personal illness or a family crisis (job related circumstances will not be accepted). Second, in the event of a crisis, either the student, a doctor or family member must notify the instructor of the problem in a timely manner (not several days after the fact)—explicit messages left through the School office are acceptable if the instructor cannot be reached directly. Third, at the earliest appropriate time, the student must meet with the instructor to verify the crisis with a signed note from the doctor, a family member or clergy that details the circumstances. If the instructor accepts the circumstances as valid, a make-up will then be scheduled at the earliest appropriate time.

Should a crisis preclude the student from completing the course, an incomplete will be granted only under the same provisions outlined above. In addition, the student must have completed one-half of the course as measured by total points available prior to 5:00 P.M., the last day of classes. The remainder of the course work must be completed before 5:00 P.M., of the fifth Friday of summer quarter.

Required readings are available in the Architecture and Agriculture libraries, and the OSU bookstore under LARCH 367 and Natural Resources 367. They are also available at some local libraries and bookstores and from online booksellers. Shop around; prices vary significantly. A bound set of course notes, which contains problem statements for all exercises as well as class notes, is sold at Cop-ez in the Tuttle Garage mall. The required readings are:

1) Simpson, John Warfield. Dam! Water, Power, Politics, and Preservation in Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite National Park. New York: Pantheon, 2005.

-------------------------------. Yearning for the Land: A Search for Homeland in Scotland and America. New

York: Vintage, 2003.

-------------------------------. Vision of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy. Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1999.

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2) Suggested Reading list for the Reading Response (read one of your choice):

Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. New York: Harper Perennial, 2000.

Beatley, Timothy. Ethical Land Use: Principles of Policy and Planning. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1994.

Bergon, Frank, ed. The Wilderness Reader. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1980.

Botzler, Richard G. and Susan J. Armstrong, eds. Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence, 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.

Brown, Lester, ed. State of the World. New York: Norton, 2005.

Chase, Alston. Playing God in Yellowstone. New York: Atlantic, 1998.

Foster, David R. Thoreau’s Country: Journey through a Transformed Landscape. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 1999.

Freyfogle, Eric T. Bounded People, Boundless Lands: Envisioning a New Land Ethic. Washington,

D.C.: Shearwater/Island Press, 1998.

Goudie, Andrew. Human Impact on the Natural Environment, 4th ed. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.

Gruen, Lori and Dale Jamieson, eds. Reflecting on Nature: Readings in Environmental

Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press, 1949.

McPhee, John. Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives about a Conservationist and three of his

Natural Enemies. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1971.

------------------. The Control of Nature. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989.

Merchant, Carolyn, ed. Major Problems in American Environmental History: Documents and Essays.

Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1993.

Mitchell, John Hanson. Trespassing: An Inquiry into the Private Ownership of Land. Reading,

Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998.

Nash, Roderick Frazier, ed. American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History, 3rd

ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990.

Nash, Roderick Frazier. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press, 1989.

------------------------------. Wilderness and the American Mind. 4th ed. New Haven: Yale University

Press, 2001.

Reisner, Marc. Cadillac Desert. New York: Penguin, 1993.

Sax, Joseph. Mountains Without Handrails. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1980.

Wallace, David Rains. Idle Weeds. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1980.

Worster, Donald. Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1977.

OR an approved alternative

If you want to see me outside class, just come up before or after class to schedule an appointment; otherwise, the best way of accessing me outside class is via E-mail at: . My office is 233 Knowlton; 292-8395. I will not return a phone call.

CALENDAR OF CLASS TOPICS

Date Day Topic

3/27 M: Course Introduction

3/28 T: Stewardship Code of Conduct (in-class exercise); discussion sign-up

3/29 W: Lifeboat Ethics (in-class exercise & discussion); discussion sign-up

3/30 R: Generic Human effects on the Environment; discussion sign-up

3/31 F: Assign Constituent Letters

4/3 M: What is Environmental Stewardship? Definition & Discussion

4/4 T: Student-led discussion

4/5 W: The Global Imperative and Population Dynamics

4/6 R: Student-led discussion

4/7 F: Somalithopia (in-class exercise)

4/10 M: Introduce Landfill-NIMBY Exercise

4/11 T: Student-led discussion

4/12 W: Pollution & the Tragedy of the Commons

4/13 R: Student-led discussion

4/14 F: Private Property and Land Use Controls

4/17 M: Personal Role Statement due; Expansion of Env. Rights: Leopold's Land Ethic

4/18 T: Student-led discussion

4/19 W: Landfill Public Forum #1

4/20 R: Student-led discussion

4/21 F: Legislative and Judicial Reactions; NEPA and EISs

4/24 M: Revised Pay-off Matrix Due; Ecofeminism, Deep Ecology;

the Problem w/Science: Old and New Paradigms

4/25 T: Student-led discussion

4/26 W: Landfill Public Forum #2; Final Vote and Summary Discussion

4/27 R: Student-led discussion

4/28 F: Draft of Constituent Letters Due and discussion; The Multinational Corporation

5/1 M: Introduce Fishing Exercise; First Decision Point

5/2 T: Role Statement; Student-led discussion

5/3 W: First Diary Entry; Decision Point; The Bet on Scarcity in Resource Economics

5/4 R: Student-led discussion

5/5 F: Entry #2; Decision Point; Alternate Ways of "Knowing”

5/8 M: Entry #3; Final Decision Point; Summary Discussion;

Bhopal & Exxon Valdiz, who is to blame?

5/9 T: Student-led discussion

5/10 W: Final Diary Due; Stewardship & Politics; If I Were President (in-class exercise)

5/11 R: Student-led discussion

5/12 F: Constituent Letters Due; Setting the National Environmental Agenda; Strip Mining

5/15 M: Our National Parks assigned

5/16 T: Student-led discussion

5/17 W: A Tale of Two Parks

5/18 R: Reading Response Due, Student-led discussion

5/19 F: Dam! Managing the Public Domain

5/22 M: Dam! (cont.’d)

5/23 T: Student-led discussion

5/24 W: Dealing with Uncertainty: What to do about the Greenhouse Effect

5/25 R: Student-led discussion

5/26 F: Our Stewardship Obligation to Future Generations

5/29 M: MEMORIAL DAY, NO CLASSES

5/30 T: Our National Parks due, Student-led discussion

5/31 W: Stewardship & our auto-oriented landscape and consumption-based lifestyle

6/1 R: Student-led discussion

6/2 F: (Re)defining your Stewardship Code of Conduct

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